3G data cards and wireless broadband solutions for laptops still lead smartphones like the BlackBerry when it comes to accessing work e-mail on the go, according to a recent Optus survey.

The national survey was carried out by Woolcott Research in April 2006, and polled 783 full-time, adult workers. It found that 13% of respondents accessed their e-mail using mobile data cards on a laptop, compared to 9% that logged in through a smartphone.

The survey failed to gather any qualitative data to reveal why laptops were preferred as the platform of choice, which would prove particularly interesting given that smartphones are inherently more portable than laptops, and thus would be a logical preference for mobile e-mail.

Regardless, the growth rate of smartphone use for e-mail outstripped that of mobile data cards, with smartphone usage tripling over last year's figure of 3%, compared to just over a 100% growth rate in mobile data cards from 6%.